Recipe 3.5. Removing Packages from a Debian System

3.5.1 Problem

You want to remove a package, or several packages, from your Debian system.

3.5.2 Solution

Use apt-get remove:

# apt-get remove tuxpaint Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following packages will be REMOVED:   tuxkart 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 79 not upgraded. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 188kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y (Reading database ... 141283 files and directories currently installed.) Removing tuxkart ... #

To test the remove command first, use:

# apt-get remove tuxpaint  dry-run

To remove all traces of a package, including configuration files, use:

# apt-get  purge remove tuxpaint

To remove several packages, use a space-delimited list:

# apt-get remove tuxkart gltron frozen-bubble tuxracer nethack galaga

3.5.3 See Also

• apt-get(8)

• Local documentation (/usr/share/doc/Debian/apt-howto)